Home Made Air cooled Lowes/Homedepot light.

[Diseased Strain]

Ok, this one is for you Lowes and Home depot people.

You got some driveway/parkinglot lights ? 70 - 150w ? I'll show you how to make a cheep air cooled box using a dresser drawer a jig saw and stuff you can find around the house.

First of all, I am using 2 Lowes/home depot 70w lights that I pulled out of my driveway last year when I put in new ones. One was a HPS one was a MH.

I'm making this for a small 2'x2'x2' fridge that was given to me and it had a two story floor in it with the back 1/4 raised about 4 or 5" higher then the rest of the floor. It has a magnetic glass door and should work verry nice for keeping humidity in for the clones. I'm going to make the higher part of the floor my clone shelf. On the lower part of the floor will be my bigger, rooted clones.

And since I cant have a exposed bulb in such a small space, I'm making this vented box to put it in. This is just to get them out of the rubber maid tub I got them in now. Although it has done a good job.


Ok your caught up.

[Diseased Strain]

Part 1. Teardown.

First step is to tear down the lights.

Keep all the screws and brackets, we will be using them later.

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If your light has a auto turn on switch. Take that out and set it aside.

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Take out the socket and push it aside. Make your way to the bottom to the ballast. It's glued in but easy to get out.

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Just grab that sucker with a pair of pliers and rock it side to side. it will break off easy.

[Diseased Strain]

Ok, once you got the guts out, set it aside and get a dresser drawer. I got a old one siting around so I just used that.

Take it apart and try not to break it up to much like I did.
See how it has a grove in it to hold the bottom piece ? That is going to hold our glass.

The glass I'm using for this is the piece that was on the HPS fixture. The MH didnt have one, it was plastic. But for what I need it for it doesnt need to be any bigger then 1' x 1'.

I will be using the HPS metal case as a ballast box for both ballasts. I'll get to making that later.

[Diseased Strain]

Ok, first things first.

Set the glass into the groove and mark where all the sides meet. This is where your going to cut. This is just held together while I took a picture.

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Find two good arched brackets and let's mount the lights.
The MH light I got lucky. The bracket I used has holes for screws so I just put one through the bottom of the socket and tightened her down. That's it for that one.

The HPS light didnt have holes in the socket and there were no holes in the bracket. But it had some click in tabs that mounted it to a plate inside the HPS light fixture. So I bent them around the bracket with some vice grips and it worked perfectly.

[Diseased Strain]

Now that we have them mounted We are ready to cut our pieces and start puting the box together. The second pic shows how they will go into the box.

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Part 2. Box construction.

This is realy simple. Make sure you have all your pieces measured right the first time. And make your cuts. I just used some pop cans as a makeshift sawhorse. Once you have them cut, put three sides together with some wood screwes. And slide the glass into the groove in the wood. Now put on the last piece and screw it down. I'm using 1" wood screws. And you end up with a verry nice, almost professional looking glass box.

[Diseased Strain]

I'm going to use 4" dryer ducting, the plastic kind so I can make a smaller oval hole instaid of a 4" round hole. And for this I trace a 2 and 1/2 inch high, 5" long oval hole on each side. try to off center it so it blows over each bulb and not over the sockets.

So remember the board is 1/2 thick, so measure 5 and 1/2 inches from the side atleast. I did mine at 5 and 3/4 inches.

This mark is how long the oval is, Mark in from the side at 3/4 of an inch, This is the other side of your oval. Make a mark in the center and measure up and down 1 and 1/4 inches. This will give your oval a nice shape without a protractor or something to trace with. Now draw your oval. Do the same on the other side.

[Diseased Strain]

Ok, let's get the back made.
Just set your box on the bottom piece of the drawer. Trace it, and cut it out.

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We will use some small trim nails to keep it on.

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Take the back piece and a glue stick. Put some glue on the back piece.

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Take a piece of foil and stick it on. This is just a little back up for the reflector we will put in this.

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The reflector came out of the HPS fixture. This will go in right behind the bulbs and be screwed down.

She's starting to take shape now.

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Now line the sides of the box with foil.

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The reflector will go in the back and all you need to do is bend it around the sides of the box and tap it down with a hammer.

It will hold the shape now and will not move till you take it off.

Put the back on and see how it fits. Make any adjustments you need. This one worked like a charm.

[Diseased Strain]

Ok that's about it for the box. Now we need to mount our lights inside.

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Alright. Put your lights inside with the bulbs in. Find a spot where the bulbs dont touch anything. Hold them in place and mark the foil with a screw. Now you can let it go and screw them down.

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Ok, that's it. The box itself is complete. That wasnt so hard eh ?

Now let's get goin on some venting for this thing.

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Part 3. Venting.


Now the fan I'm using is a heater fan from a old heater I never use. If you dont have one try to find something that will work. Computer fan, a blower, exhaust fans.

[Diseased Strain]

Teardown on the heater is verry simple.

1. Grasp heater firmly in both hands.
2. Raise heater high above your head.
3. Throw the heater at the garage floor.
4. Harvest your fan.

[Diseased Strain]

Alright, Squish your hose into the holes, If you need to snip a wire to get it in dont worry. I had to.

Do the same for the other side.

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When you have both sides done, notch a hole with your jig saw on the edges for the wires and stick then in there and put the back on with some small screws or trim nails.

Ok, your box is done. Hook it back to the ballast using the marks or colors your wrote down. If you need to extend the wires like I do, use the right kind. No speaker wire.

[Diseased Strain]

This kind of setup can be adjusted to size to just about any kind of light size. All you need to do is use a bigger drawer. I'm going to be using the same steps to build my 600w light box using one of the lower 10" high dresser drawers. The only diffrence is I wont be cutting anything and I'll have to go to the glass store and have them match the bottom wood piece and thickness with some glass so it fits in the groove and I'm good to go. I'll post some pic's but wont go into detail.

This is a work smart, not hard project. It's simple if you just take your time. I gota go see how this fits in the fridge. See ya !

[Diseased Strain]

Alright, Here's some stats on this box so far. It's been runing for an hour now.

It's a 10" x 11" air cooled, 150w, dual spectrum box. At 2 feet away its giving off 4,800 lumens, that should be enough for clones :). Cant feel any kind of heat 2" away from the glass and I can hold my hand on the glass without hardly feeling any heat.

I guess there's not much left to do now but smoke a doobie and relax.
Here's one to ya.

[Diseased Strain]

Total cost to build: (Junk laying around the house) + dryer hose $5.64) = $5.64 US.

Tools needed. Jig saw, screw driver, tape measure, pen.
Other handy tools, but not needed. Drill, Drill bits.

Parts: 1 fan, 2 driveway lights, dryer hose, 8 screws, 4 trim nails, 8 wire nuts, 1 dresser drawer, 1 pack ciggs., 1 pack Zig Zags 1 & 1/4's, roach clip, bag of good sativa.

[MarPassion]

Hi DS, thanks for posting this man, awesome.

What do you think to make a forum with step by step instructions how to make stuff, that would be cool. It would be a waste to see this post drop to the bottum where nobody can find it anymore.

Thanks again.

[Hick]

..I think it' a dandy idea MarP'....A "DIY"(do it yourself) forum! Would be a great way for vet's and rookies alike, to share time and money saving devices that they've discovered.

I'd like to comment on diseased vented hood, too. I did a similar projct on a 1k not long back, and discovered that I had to use "tempered" glass. The heat was just too much for ordinary plate glass, causing it to stress and fracture.

[Diseased Strain]

..I think it' a dandy idea MarP'....A "DIY"(do it yourself) forum! Would be a great way for vet's and rookies alike, to share time and money saving devices that they've discovered.

I'd like to comment on diseased vented hood, too. I did a similar projct on a 1k not long back, and discovered that I had to use "tempered" glass. The heat was just too much for ordinary plate glass, causing it to stress and fracture.


A tutorial section would be nice. I'm a do it yourself kind of person. I still want to add some pic's in my do it yourself carbon filter. But it's filtering my plants right now. When I have to refill it I'll take it apart and take pic's puting it back together. So if a tutorial section does come up please move that one too MarP ? Thanks man. I'm sure alot of people have DIY stuff they could share. I know it's helped me alot to read a few. So you can throw in a vote from me for a DIY folder.

Hick, your 100% right. I did forget to mention that and thank you verry much for pointing that out. It's the reason the box was so small. At the time money was tight and the glass from the HPS fixture was latying there. Shame to waste it. I'm one of them people who never throw stuff away. Cause you never know when your going to need a spare part for something. I have a tool box filled with 15 years of spare parts from workin at the shop I work at. Left over brake shims, nuts and bolts, brake springs, switches, you name it it's probably in there. So I make alot of crazy stuff. I dont use half of it. LoL. But it passes the time when the kids are at school and the old lady is in a bad mood. Heh. Oh, and it keeps my mind off the plants so they grow faster... They seem to anyway. When you dont ever check on them. Just go to water and leave them alone. It's so hard ! I want them done now !

Double pane storm window glass seems to work ok for my 400w. Next grow when I bump up to 1000w, I'll see if I need to go strait tempered with that one. If I could ask, what kind of glass did you use at first hick ? Home depot stuff ? Or something diffrent, like a window glass ? Tempered is expencive here. If I can get away with soemthing else I'd like to. Something I have layin around the house if I can. :)

[MarPassion]

Ok, thanks guys, I think a DIY forum would be great.

So I make alot of crazy stuff. I dont use half of it. LoL. But it passes the time when the kids are at school and the old lady is in a bad mood. Heh. Oh, and it keeps my mind off the plants so they grow faster... They seem to anyway.

Cool DS, I understand what you mean. Seems you find your way around when you need to escape from things, :-)

[Hick]

DS....My hood happens to be round, so I had a piece of 1/4" plate glass cut to fit at the glass shop. I questioned them about the heat at the time. They asked what kind of glass had been in the light before. Since there had been none before, I couldn't answer that... :rolleyes: Forethought, brought me to "test drive" it before putting any plants under it, thank goodness. Within 12 hours, the heat busted the plate glass and it fell to the floor.

Soooo, back to the glass shop. Since "tempered" glass has to be...tempered...it had to be ordered. The cost was around $60 and 5 days to delivery. 1/4 inch tempered. 31 inch diameter, I believe it was.

[Diseased Strain]

Not to dogg on my own design. But if the sides were angled down, It would give alot more light. As long as the plants are directly infront of it it's fine, but when you get 10 or 15 plants in the fridge the side ones dont get as much light as they should.

[bizzy323]

diseased your fan pushes the air out or in the box?

[Diseased Strain]

Actually it sucks it through from one side to the other.

[Bubonic Chronic]

any pics!?!

[Diseased Strain]

Seems if you lay low for to long, pic's get stolen. o.O

[papabeach1]

Seems if you lay low for to long, pic's get stolen. o.O

well.. no pics.. and the way you say this? lay low for long, the pic get stolen? for what? you posted it for everybody.. if you think that is helpful.

everybody will try it out but your stuff will not be stolen.. you will just help others to grow better with their mojo plants. that is all I do see..

YO mods..

if that guy dont reply back.. please delete the whole thread of his..

btw it should be post in DIY.. I was lookin for something specif on DIY HPS hood though... and it is not there.. and it is not in light forum too.. so I don't think its around in this forum... its worthless with no PICS!!:postpicsworthless:

[Trent45]

Someone could just as easycopy and paste all those posts and have themselves a step by step they didn't do and say it is their own. So wy not post pics?

[Hick]

well.. no pics.. and the way you say this? lay low for long, the pic get stolen? for what? you posted it for everybody.. if you think that is helpful.

everybody will try it out but your stuff will not be stolen.. you will just help others to grow better with their mojo plants. that is all I do see..

YO mods..

if that guy dont reply back.. please delete the whole thread of his..

btw it should be post in DIY.. I was lookin for something specif on DIY HPS hood though... and it is not there.. and it is not in light forum too.. so I don't think its around in this forum... its worthless with no PICS!!:postpicsworthless:

this thread was started over 3 years ago. the last post was over 18 months ago, until you bumped it back to the top. .... maybe not "everyone" needs pictures to understand or comprehend instructions.. :)
It might well be more appropriate in the DIY section, but it IS in the Growroom Setup and design section, which is NOT entirely inappropriate.

[andy52]

i see no use of this thread with no pics.